Rhiannon: I know that some of you guys were a big fan of this… Bando-eido asked me to put this up under me since I did the other chapters… I got some really good reviews from this and I hope that you all read it again and that I get new reviews as well.

Sano: Please don't talk.

Rhiannon: Go back to your own fandom! Here's Bando's ch!

Chapter One

(Unknown POV)

What do I fear?

I asked myself that everyday. Along with the other stupid questions I had to
ask myself every morning as I stared at myself in the mirror.

I don't do that anymore. Not now that I have everything, and absolutely
nothing, to fear.

I don't fear death.

But I fear the night.

I fear the night because of the horrible memories that come. But he takes
them away, so I don't have to fear the night as much anymore.

This is my story. You might know how it began. But this is how it ended.

You may know the story of the Fellowship of the Ring, and how the fellowship
itself failed, but the quest did not.

But that's only half the story.

Here's the rest...

(Author's POV)

A falcon skimmed the treetops.

The distant roar of the waves crashing on the beach echoed through the
silent land.

Time stood still for those awake to regard it.

Sebastion Mytherial was one such person.

He stood on the balcony from his room, in his new house, looking out over
the other houses to the ocean.

He thought about his old town, and his friends, and his family. But most of
all, he thought about the miles that separated him from them.

Sebastion hated everything about his life.

He hated how he had been dragged, against his will, across the United States
of America, to this place his parents were already calling home. He wanted
to go back to the East coast. Back to Rhode Island, and back to his
home.

He hated how he could never sleep, because the dreams would come to him
again. The dreams of hopelessness, of disgusting monsters taking him and
dragging him away from his faceless companions. The dreams of holding the
heavy stone, made of pure crystal, and an eye that watched him without
blinking. Never stopping, always ordering him to go and do his bidding.

Sebastion supposed the dreams were a reaction to moving to the West coast,
as they had begun the first night he had been there, and had continued for
the past week. The monsters were his parents dragging him away from his
friends, and the stone that ordered him around was the burden of being an
only child, with over-protective parents.

Sebastion enjoyed interpreting dreams, and he loved dreaming, just to be
able to better understand himself. But now... he never wanted to sleep
anymore.

Sebastion jumped up onto the railing, then into the tree beside it, then
scampered down the tree. He took off for the beach, well knowing that his
parents would never suspect that he had left.

When he got to the beach, he was only mildly surprised to find that there
were two or three couples walking along the beach. The summer weather was
very mild, and the breeze was sweet as it blew from land to sea.

Sebastion pushed his curls out of his face as the wind gently lifted them
and caressed them in its gentle grasp. He felt silly to be walking the beach
in solitude, wearing a pair of shorts, as white T-shirt, and no shoes.

A couple paused to kiss each other. The moment was perfect. The breeze
curling around them, the swollen moon shining on the beach, the waves gently
lapping at their feet.

Sebastion looked away.

It was near the end of August, and school would be starting on the first of
the month. Sebastion was not looking forward to being the new student.
Especially since he was from across the country, and he had heard that
California high-schoolers were all about partying. Sebastion was worried
about his grades; his parents expected the best out of him.

Sebastion had been very popular back at his old school, but it never
mattered that he was smart there. California...well, he wasn't sure what his
social standing would be.

The couple broke.

The waves pulled up closer onto the beach.

Sebastion walked closer to the water.

The waves covered his feet.

Sebastion stepped forward again.

A sharp shell drove itself into his foot.

Sebastion cried out in pain as he jumped backwards, the shell fell out of
the wound, and his blood exited the wound, staining the water as salt water
filled it and Sebastion screamed again.

The couple that had been kissing ran up to the wincing, sixteen-year-old
boy.

"Are you all right?" The woman asked urgently.

Sebastion didn't answer except to scream again at the pain of the salt in
his wound.

The man examined the wound carefully. "It's deep. Come on now. That's a good
lad." He picked Sebastion up and carried him up to the grasses that were
beyond the fences that separated the beach from the grass and soil.

"I'm going to take you to our house. It's just a little way." The man stated
quietly to Sebastion.

"No!" He cried, and began to try to push himself away.

The man held him tighter. "My wife and I won't kidnap you. I'm a doctor, and
I can help you clean and bandage that."

"You don't understand! I have to get back! My parents! They don't know I'm
gone! I was just taking a walk! We've just moved here!"

The woman laid her hand on Sebastion's arm. "Shh. It's okay. We won't tell
anyone. We'll just clean and bandage that, and then you can go home."

Sebastion hung his head. "I'm very sorry for making you do this."

"Nonsense!" Cried the woman. "My husband and I are more than happy to help
you! It'd be best if you weren't to get sick from that. We won't let it get
infected."

After several more minutes of pain, they came to a large house and they went
inside, where Sebastion was guided to the couch to sit down while they
retrieved the bandages and rubbing alcohol.

A girl, about Sebastion's age came down the stairs, rubbing her eyes in the
sudden light. "Mom? Dad? Did you come back from your walk?" She glanced at a
clock. "You're early returning. You weren't due home for another fifteen
minutes."

Her mother came out of the bathroom, her father in tow, carrying the
bandages. "This young lad stepped on a sharp sea shell and ended up with a
rather nasty wound. Your father and I are helping him." She gestured to
Sebastion, who smiled weakly.

The girl turned to him and extended her hand. "My name is Morgana. And these
are my parents, Estelle and Daniel O'Connor."

Sebastion nodded and shook her hand. "My name is Sebastion Mytherial."

She smiled. "Now there's a name I don't hear often. What grade are you going
into this year?"

"Junior."

She beamed. "So am I! Maybe we'll have classes together."

Daniel looked at Morgana. "Where is Alastor? He's usually awake this late."

She rolled her eyes. "He was totally beat today. He spent the whole day
playing basketball. He's dead to the world upstairs."

"You have a brother?" Sebastion asked hopefully, with a prayer for a
possible friend. Perhaps her brother would be friendly, like she was.

She laughed. "Yes, but you could never tell, with all the times he's away.
He's excited that he's going to be starting Senior year, so he won't have
much to do with anybody younger than him."

"Oh- OWWWWWW!!" He screamed as Estelle poured some rubbing alcohol onto the
wound.

"Oh, stop being a baby. It's not going to hurt much soon, and what will,
will be from the bruising."

Daniel wrapped his foot with the bandages shortly there after, and they sent
him on his way.

Estelle cried out in realization. "Oh! You must be the people who just moved
in a few streets over! The family from Rhode Island?"

Sebastion nodded numbly.

"Oh, then welcome to California! I hope you like it here." She smiled and
waved as Sebastion smiled back and nodded to them as he limped down the
sidewalk while a clock somewhere chimed twelve times.

It was Sebastion's first day of school in California, and he was nervous.

Over the past few days, since he had met Daniel and his family, he had only
seen them a couple of times. And every time, they apologized for Alastor's
absence, as he was away with his friends, or with his girlfriend.

They had come to greet the new family, and had not let on that they had
known Sebastion at all. In fact, Sebastion would have believed that meeting
them had been a dream if not for the fact that he did not sleep for fear of
dreaming, or for the wound on his foot.

His father, who wished him well on his first day of school, had dropped off
Sebastion.

He shook his head as he scanned the locker numbers for his.

689, 690, 691, 692, 693, 694, 695, 696...

Locker number six hundred ninety-seven was his locker.

Sebastion stopped in front of it, and someone barreled into him.

"Hey!" A loud, masculine voice hissed, as the owner of it pulled his body
away.

Sebastion whirled around to find himself looking a boy with short, lightly
curled almond-colored hair and blazing green pools for eyes.

He opened his mouth to apologize, but no words escaped, because, just as he
was about to, a slightly shorter boy lay his hand on the first boy's
shoulder.

"Alastor! Leave him alone! There's no need to take out your problems on him.
He didn't do anything to you!" The boy scolded, none-too-gently.

'Alastor' glanced at Sebastion. "I'm sorry. I should not have taken my
aggressions out on you." He turned away, looking insincere about his
apology. "Come on, Nick, we can't be late for class."

'Nick' sighed. "I'm sorry. His girlfriend just broke up with him, and now
he's on a warpath. He's usually quite kind."

"Nick!"

"Hold ON!" He turned back to Sebastion. "My name is Nicholas Parker. It's a
pleasure to meet your acquaintance."

Sebastion smiled numbly and shook his hand. "Sebastion Mytherial."

Nick smiled, "I'll see you later! Good luck on your first day!"

Sebastion stared after him. How had he known that it was his first day?

He shook off the feeling of familiarity and put it off just as though
Nicholas knew the students by name or face, and had not recognized him.

He looked down at his schedule.

Algebra 2.

Sebastion sighed in discontentment at the prospect of having to deal with
math first thing in the morning. But on the bright side, it allowed him to
finish the class earlier in the day, and then he did not have to worry about
it after that.

He wandered around the hallways for a good ten minutes before finding the
classroom and walking in, just as the bell rang.

"Sebastion!"

He jerked up to see Morgana waving to him from the middle of the room. He
walked up to her.

"Good morning."

"Good morning. It's a good thing you got here at the early bell. You have a
good choice of seats that way. Sit here." She gestured to the seat next to
her.

Sebastion stared at the seat she had offered him and remembered the boy in
the hall.

"I think I met your brother."

"Alastor?"

He sat down. "Yeah. Taller than me by a couple inches, light brown, curly
hair, green eyes..."

Sebastion wasn't about to mention that they had also been the most piercing,
not to mention beautiful green eyes he had ever seen.

"That's him."

"He ran into me...literally. And then he got mad at me, until a guy named
Nicholas told him to back off."

"Nick's a good guy. Now, is this the same Nick who has dark, curly hair and
the damned bluest eyes you've ever seen?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, yeah, he's a good guy. I think you'll get along with him. He's one of
my brother's friends, but you'll probably see him with his evil sidekick,
Eli."

Sebastion started. "Evil?"

Morgana laughed. "Don't worry, it's just that Nicholas and Eli are
practically inseparable. They've known each other practically since birth,
and have no idea that the other is in love with them."

"They're in love with each other?"

"Yeah. They don't know about the other though. You wouldn't believe how many
times Alastor and I have had to comfort one of 'em when the other gets a new
girlfriend."

Sebastion laughed a little.

Morgana flipped her dark brown hair behind her shoulder and waved her hand
around the room. "Chill out, Sebastion. Nothing's a big deal here. You can
relax, this isn't an uptight school, you'll get a good education, and
everyone will like you."

"Except your brother."

"Don't worry about him. He's just in a bad mood because he didn't break up
with his girlfriend before she did him. You'll see, he's a nice guy as a
general rule. A little ruthless sometimes, but a good guy."

Sebastion swallowed. "Ruthless?" He sunk low into his seat.

She laughed again. "Don't worry, not like that, he's just a bit scary
sometimes when it comes to his opinions about some things."

He smiled weakly. "Oh."

Morgana slapped him lightly on the shoulder. "I told you not to worry! I
also told you that I don't think you'll have much to deal with anyway, since
Alastor's a senior and doesn't like to interact with those younger than
him." She laughed brilliantly. "But I already told you that!"

Sebastion never got a chance to answer because he flinched as the bell rang
shrilly in the hall outside of the classroom, signaling the beginning of
school.

Sebastion sighed as he walked into the cafeteria not expecting anything
great to be served, but hoping for a place to go for the half hour he had
free from class.

He stopped when he heard his name being called from somewhere in the room.

He turned to see Morgana waving at him from a table.

"Over here! You can sit with us!"

He nodded slowly and trudged over to where she was sitting with her friends,
as well as some boys.

He spotted Nicholas first, and his heart sank slowly as he saw Alastor
sitting across from the only free seat at the table, which was in between
Morgana and another boy, with well-tanned skin (likely from being outside
often) and sun-bleached curls.

Sebastion sank slowly into the seat, blushing a little under Alastor's
piercing gaze.

"Hello." He muttered under his breath.

"Hey! You're that dude from this morning." Alastor's voice was just as
intense as his eyes.

"Yeah." Sebastion murmured, looking up to acknowledge him.

"I'm sorry about this morning. I was-ah- upset about personal affairs."

"It's okay."

Nicholas smiled brightly. "So how were your first classes here?"

"Murder."

"Too hard?" Nicholas's smile dimmed.

"Too easy."

"Oh! Well, I suppose it's like that when you come to a new school. Sometimes
they teach at a very different pace then at other schools."

The golden boy smiled lightly to himself.

Morgana jumped. "Sebastion! I'm sorry!" She pointed to the golden boy. "This
is Eli Gregory."

Sebastion smiled and shook his hand. "I'm Sebastion Mytherial. It is a
pleasure to meet you."

Eli smiled in response. "The pleasure is all mine."

With that they both turned back to the table and Eli began to talk with
Nicholas and Alastor about something that made no sense to Sebastion.

Morgana saved him by engaging him in a conversation about Rhode Island,
which she had once visited.

Despite how much he was talking, he was still able to steal a few glances at
Eli, who was watching Nicholas with a sort of adoration when he wasn't
looking. And then Nicholas would stare at Eli when he wasn't looking.
Sebastion smiled inwardly at the beauty of their shy and naïve glances.

Finally, Morgana looked down at her watch and cried out. "Oh!" She stood up.
"We have to go now!" She grabbed Sebastion's hand and started to drag him
out of the cafeteria toward their next class.

"Morgana! Wait! I can walk on my own!" He cried out, prying her hand off of
his and began jogging to keep up with her.

She blushed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry. I was afraid we'd miss our next
class."

"Why don't they go too?"

She smiled. "Because they're seniors."

"Oh."

Morgana laughed. "No, actually, I think that they have to go to class in a
minute. But since they're seniors, they won't want to be seen rushing."

"Ah, okay. Things work much in the same way as my old school."

"I guess. I only was in Rhode Island for a week, visiting a relative, so I
wouldn't know anything about the schools."

They hurried to class, and the rest of the day passed uneventfully.

Sebastion was picked up by his father and, upon arrival to his house, went
upstairs to his room and shut the door.

Several days later, at the end of the week, he glanced over his minimal
amount of homework, which consisted mainly of answering some questions for
his World Civilizations class, and finish writing a letter about himself to
his English teacher, who had asked them to write it at the beginning of the
week, to be turned in on the next Monday.

After finishing the horribly easy questions, and adding the finalizing
touches to his letter, he collapsed on his bed.

His rest was short-lived, as he heard the doorbell ring insistently.

Dragging himself up, he came down the stairs and to the door, which he
opened, unable to think of who would be visiting his house, especially when
they could plainly see that his parents were not home. What he had not
expected, however, was for Nicholas Parker to be standing on his porch with
Eli Gregory, both of them wearing just their shorts, and Morgana.

He stared at them, still holding the door open. "Uh... I -uh- wasn't
expecting company."

Morgana laughed brightly. "We thought as much. We pretty much finished with
our 'first-week duties', and thought we'd give you a little time to do
yours. Are you finished?"

Sebastion nodded, "Yeah, I was just finished when you guys rang the bell."

"Perfect!" She cried and clapped her hands in glee. She looked at Nicholas
pointedly. "See! I told you he would be finished!"

"So, why are you guys here? Do you want to come in?" He asked, remembering
his manners.

"We decided to go to the beach for a few hours to relax a little. Play some
beach volleyball. Hook up with some other friends of ours. Eat a small
dinner while we're there." She smiled and pointed to the sidewalk, where
Alastor was standing, surrounded with several baskets, in the same attire as
the other two males.

"Oh, okay."

"Do you want to come with us?" She asked, her smile never fading. "Unless
you have to do something else, or if your parents won't let you."

"No! I don't think so. My parents are working late tonight, so I was
counting on spending the night alone. You know, cooking something for
myself, reading a book..." He stopped. "I'd love to come with you."

Morgana's smile brightened to a radiant shine.

"Why don't you come in? All of you, until I can get changed, okay?"

Eli smiled and walked back to where Alastor was standing. They conversed for
a moment, where Alastor finally shook his head slowly in defeat and picked
up two of the three baskets.

They all came inside, and Sebastion showed them into the living room. "I'm
sorry about the mess. We've still got a bit to unpack, so everything's in a
disarray."

Morgana patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about it! You go get changed, and
we won't move from this place."

Sebastion nodded slowly and ran upstairs, where he changed quickly, grabbed
a towel to sit on. He came downstairs and excused himself for another
moment, after taking a quick look at their baskets.

He walked into the kitchen, picked up one of the coolers his family owned,
filled it with sodas, and dumped ice over them. Closing it, he put it on the
counter, and wrote a quick note to his parents, which he put on the
refrigerator. When he was finished, he picked up the cooler and his towel
and walked back into the living room.

Morgana looked at the cooler in confusion. "What's that for?"

"I didn't think you guys would want to have to constantly buy drinks. So I
packed some as my contribution to this whole thing."

Her eyes widened. "You know, I never once thought about that!"

Alastor looked at them impatiently. "Are we going now? Isaac and the others
won't be too happy if we're too late."

Eli rolled his eyes. "Come on Alastor, you know that if we leave now, we'll
get there a good ten minutes before they do."

With that, and Sebastion wondering who Isaac was, they all left the house
and walked to the beach, chattering happily as the Friday afternoon sun beat
onto them.

When they arrived at the beach, Eli's prediction proved accurate, giving
them time to set up the towels and the net.

Sebastion felt a little out of place, but that feeling was quickly dissolved
when five men approached them with towels and even more baskets.

"Hello!" One called brightly. He was tall, with broad shoulders and shoulder
length light brown hair that was sun-kissed, much like Eli's.

Nicholas smiled and waved to them. "Hi Will!"

Sebastion sat on his towel silently, while the other men set theirs up.

One, who had long, blond hair which was pulled back into a slender ponytail,
sat next to him. "And who might you be?" He asked.

"I just moved here over the summer, and I'm...friends with Morgana."

The blonde laughed, his laugh like a beautiful piece of music. "Well,
everyone is friends with Morgana. That's how we all met Alastor, and then
Eli and Nick. What about them?"

"I don't think Alastor likes me much."

"How so?" The blonde looked genuinely confused.

"He's rather cold to me."

This made the blonde laugh even harder. "Then he likes you!" He stilled his
laughter. "Alastor is always like that. If he really didn't like you, then
he would either ignore you, or be 'nice' to you."

"Oh." Sebastion said in surprise.

The blonde man stuck out his hand. "My name is Ives Bernhardt."

Sebastion shook his hand. "Sebastion Mytherial."

Ives pointed to the tall man who had greeted them. "That's William Brooks."
He pointed to a shorter man, with red hair and a broad built body. "That's
Mason Nix." After that he pointed to a tall man with black hair who looked a
little older than each of them. "That's Michael Brecks. And then there's
Isaac Perring." He pointed to another tall man with shoulder-length, dark
brown hair. After that, he stood up and called to the other four men. "Hey!
Guys!" He pulled Sebastion up to stand next to him. "This is Sebastion
Mytherial. He's friends with Morgana."

The other men smiled and waved cheerfully to him.

After a few more moments of conversation, Ives stood up and left, leaving
Sebastion alone for a few moments.

Sebastion was feeling a little lonely for a fleeting instant before Alastor
walked up to him and sat down next to him.

"Hi." He said quietly.

Sebastion jerked a little in surprise at the man's sudden show of life. "H-
hi."

Alastor looked out over the ocean. "So, Morgana tells me that you're from
Rhode Island."

Sebastion looked out over the ocean as well. "Yeah."

"Do you like California?" He paused. "I mean, do you like it more than your
old home?"

Sebastion sighed. "I'm warming up to it."

Alastor smiled gently. "You don't have to be quite so terse with me. It's
okay, I'm not gonna hurt you or anything." He turned his head and looked at
Sebastion. "I guess I'm trying to apologize for being such a jackass to
you."

Sebastion found that he was frozen under Alastor's gaze. "It's
okay...really, I don't mind so much." He couldn't shake a feeling of
familiarity. The feeling that he knew the look in his eyes, and he could
trust it with his whole being. Sebastion also felt that he wanted to throw
himself into Alastor's arms, so that he could get rid of the terrible
memories that plagued him.

Alastor's smile deepened into a true one. "Do you accept my apology?"

Sebastion nodded. "I have no reason not to."

"Good." He turned his smile to the horizon again, and Sebastion followed
suit.

After a moment, Sebastion realized that the warmth that was running through
him wasn't caused by his heart's pounding, or even by the sun, but by the
sudden realization that Alastor was sitting very close to him. Sebastion
forced the thought out of his head.

"Sebastion! Alastor!" Eli called, snapping them both out of their trances.
"Come on! We're going to start playing!"

They both jumped up at the same time, tripping over one another, and falling
onto the hot sand.

Sebastion felt his face grow hot in embarrassment, and Alastor was obviously
in the same predicament. When they had fallen, Sebastion had fallen onto his
back in the sand, which cushioned him. But Alastor had fallen forward onto
him, only catching himself by shoving his arms forward into the sand, one on
either side of Sebastion.

Time was frozen.

They stayed in that position for the entire time that Time stopped, staring
at one another with surprise and embarrassment clouding their minds.

It was really only a few seconds that they stayed that way because they
quickly picked themselves up with more grace then should have been
necessary.

Ives leaned over to Isaac and muttered something, who laughed in response,
and muttered something to him in return and slid a small kiss over his
cheek, which no one noticed, because they were watching the two embarrassed
boys approach with their dignity bruised.

The group split into two groups, the high school students on one team, and
the 'older people' on the other. They began to play, and it soon became
clear to Sebastion that there was really no point in playing hard, because
it was all for fun, and they were always doing something silly.

At one point in the game, Mason kicked the ball and promptly ran around the
net. To which Eli retaliated by kicking the ball under the net like a soccer
ball.

Sebastion was quickly made a useful part of the game when he 'scored' a
point by getting frustrated with his sports skills and the lack thereof, and
picked up the ball, raced to the other side of the net, and threw down the
ball like a football.

Morgana howled with laughter when she saw him do this. "Excellent!" She
cried and hugged him.

Nicholas laughed as well. "I guess you've been fully accepted Sebastion."

Alastor shook his head at his friends. "Come on guys, if we're going to
play, let's do it, if not, forget it."

Isaac leaned over the net. "Alastor, I think you're being a little cold
today. It's not like we don't play like this all the time, right?"

William grinned. "Okay Alastor, we'll do things your way and take a few
minutes to rest. Besides, Nicholas looks like he's struggling."

"I am not!" Nicholas protested loudly and crossed his arms over his chest
with a pout on his face. "Why are you always so mean to me, Will?"

Eli laughed. "He's only kidding Nick!" He walked up to him and patted him
lightly on the head. "You shouldn't take everything he says so seriously. We
all know he's an idiot."

"Hey!" Will cried, as though his dignity and pride had been personally
attack, which, of course, they had.

They all sat down on towels and watched other people play in the waves.

Michael grinned and pointed at a couple sitting a few towels over. "Maybe we
should tell them that they're going to get a serious sunburn all over them
if they keep that up."

Will developed an identical evil grin and shook his head. "Nah. If they're
not smart enough to keep their intimate relationships to themselves, and in
a room, then they deserve to look like lobsters for a week."

Nicholas stood up and grabbed Eli's hand. "We're going swimming."

"Okay guys, you have fun now. Shoo." Morgana said as she flipped her hand to
gesture for them to go ahead.

Ives grabbed Isaac's hand and pulled him up, then proceeded to pull up Will
and Mason. "Come on guys, you know that those stupid seniors can't swim."

Alastor glared daggers at him as Morgana and Sebastion chuckled lightly.

Mason chuckled at the joke. "It wouldn't matter if they could or not. Those
two would drown because they'd be so busy staring at each other."

Will nodded. "Those poor boys still don't have any idea about how the other
feels, do they?"

Alastor launched himself backward and flumped onto his back on his towel.
"Nope. Neither have a single clue."

Morgana lay back again. "I really feel sorry for them. The poor guys..."

Sebastion stood up, "Can I come with you guys?"

Will shrugged. "Sure."

Sebastion looked at the remaining three. "How about you guys?"

Michael looked down at his watch. "Sorry, I've gotta go home in a few
minutes. I promised my wife I'd be home by five o'clock."

Sebastion raised his eyebrows. "You're married?"

Michael laughed. "Yeah. I'm twenty-nine, married, out of medical school."

"Oh." Sebastion was very surprised to discover this.

Michael stood up with his towel, bade them farewell, and left.

"So, is anyone going to come with me?"

Morgana smiled and stood up. "I will. I wanted to get some swimming in today
anyway."

Alastor shook his head and stood. "What the hell." He muttered.

So the three of them trooped off toward the water, where Eli was helping
Nick find shells, and the four college students watched them.

When they reached the water, Will playfully splashed Isaac and Ives, who
were standing unusually close. In retaliation, Ives and Isaac splashed Will,
but missed and hit Morgana, who splashed them back. Will splashed Alastor
and Sebastion, and then Eli and Nick, which triggered a furious war.

After a few moments of all-out war, they all stopped, out of breath, soaking
wet, and grinning like idiots.

"That was fun." Will said, his grin the widest and most evil of all, as he
slowly made his way back up the beach.

Alastor shook his head. "Why the hell does he always have to do that?"

Later that night, at about ten o'clock, Sebastion drug himself into his
house. After shutting the door, he turned around to find his parents in the
living room with several people. They were laughing and joking about. They
were obviously people his parents had invited over from their workplace.

They all turned around when he entered the room and he could only imagine
what he looked like. What with his usually dirty blond curls wet and filled
with sand, not to mention is exhaustion and lack of shirt, he must have
looked terrible.

Sebastion apologized quickly and ran up the stairs. After a quick shower, he
changed and found himself quite willing to sleep.

Dream Sequence

He ran through the woods, someone calling his name and he following it
without any question of who it was. He knew the voice. It was of warm summer
nights in fragrant gardens, and of cold winter nights under a heavy, shared
blanket.

He emerged from the forest, and the voice was very close. He threw himself
into the arms of the one that had called him, and the person's arms were
warm as they hugged him as an answer to his show of whatever emotion had
possessed him.

"What were you doing in there?"

"I was looking."

"For what, Pippin?"

"For you. You weren't in the gardens, and I couldn't find you anywhere in
the house." His voice was now growing in volume, as though all of his
frustrations and worry were spilling out.

The person, a male based by his voice, laughed gently. "I'm sorry for making
you worry. I was helping Mother in the orchard."

"Oh." His voice was soft.

The male hugged him tighter and let his lips brush the other boy's. "It's
okay! I'm not upset, and I'm very sorry for making you worry about me."

"Merry! We should be more careful! Folk don't approve of people like us! And
I'm not even of age yet!"

'Merry' nodded and sighed, releasing 'Pippin'. "I hate keeping secrets like
this. Here we are, knights of men, fearless in battle, and we can't even
face our own people, or even our own families. I wish we could just tell
them to shove it wherever, and to leave us alone."

"I sometimes wish the same things. But we can't, because we have duties
here."

"I'd much rather spend my life with you. I want to spend my life loving
you..."

End Dream Sequence

Rhiannon: Alright… Thre will be no authors notes on the other ones… because Bando didn't leave the originals but remember… Feedback is always appreciated!